Suckered Again

I had planned on giving Dallas' parents copies of the pictures we had taken of all four cousins for Grandparents Day gifts; however, I was hoping to find a good picture of just Ethan and Paige for them as well. I tried to find one in the recent photos I had or crop one of the two of them but nothing was working the way I wanted it to. I decided that I would take the kids Friday after work to the new Portrait Innovations in Arlington for one photo of them together. They have a running special of $9.99 for 10 sheets of one pose. Perfect! We hadn't had professional pictures taken since before their 1st birthday and it would give me a chance to see how the studio in Arlington is ran.

When we arrived there was nobody there but us and the employees. I was thrilled with this considering I had brought them by myself and was a little worried about controlling them. This time it was Ethan who was not in the mood for pictures. He cried every time someone looked at him or spoke to him. He was hiding behind me and screaming his head off. I pulled out the books that I had brought for them to look at while I picked the pictures I wanted to purchase. Thank God for books! I did not intend for the books to be in the pictures but since they love books with a passion it made sense. He was soon over his 'stranger danger' and was back to his smiley self.

The kids soon warmed up a little too much and felt free to run crazy throughout the entire place. I told the guy I only wanted one pose of them together but damn him he kept taking amazing pictures. Ethan and Paige both found a big bear that they loved and it soon became our centerpiece.

Ethan especially loved the bear and kept going back to sit in it's lap. Too Cute!

Paige found a rocking chair and thought that was really cool. She was being silly rocking back and forth with her feet kicking and it ended up being one of the best pictures of her I have ever seen.

Safe to say I had to eventually strap the kids down in the stroller and hand feed them puffs to finish picking all the pictures. I just couldn't decide between a couple of them and I ended up spending way more than $9.99. SUCKERED AGAIN! Dallas knew that I would not be able to leave that place with only one pose so he wasn't surprised when I called him with the news. He actually was driving home and decided to come save me. He pulled up and helped me load the kids up and head home.

I was so very impressed with the Portrait Innovations in Arlington! It is very new, nice, and clean. It has a great design with many props for pictures of all occasions. The young people working there were very helpful with chasing down kids, shutting doors, and retrieving dropped items such as books, sippy cups, and puffs. They were all super star employees that day and I think I even helped stop over population. I guarantee our visit was a form of birth control on that day by the look on some of their faces! Now that is...PRICELESS!

*These are only the six we purchased prints of. I also have the cd and will add some that didn't make the cut but are still extremely cute.*